The kahu returned to the ali'i with the ulua. In an act of revenge, the kahu told the ali'i that Kū'ula said to come back and tell him that his head should be cut off, cooked in an imu, and then his flesh should be salted and dried up in the sun.
The ali'i grew so angry upon hearing this that he sent all of his people to burn Kū'ula's house down. Kū'ula saw what was happening, and though he had always lived in peace and freely supplied Hāna with fish, he understood that the kahu who visited him earlier was to blame.
Kū'ula and Hina accepted their fate and told their son, 'Ai'ai, that once the house was set on fire, he must follow the smoke into the mountains and live in a cave. With him he must take, his mighty fishhook Manaiakalani, the cowry shell called Kahuoi for catching octopus, and a small sandstone which was the creator of all the fish in the sea. 'Ai'ai was to be the perpetuator of fishing throughout the islands. Kū'ula also said that he and his wife Hina will go into the sea to live forever as akua. Kū'ula then transferred all of his powers to his son so in the future he could call upon his parents in the sea.